Jon O'Shea

A recent convert to athletics who is running seven marathons on all continents for the Meningitis Research Foundation. Jon started running 3 years ago after kicking a 20-year smoking habit. He initially decided to run the London Marathon only but it snowballed from there. He has already run London, Las Vegas, Kenya Safaricom, Mumbai, Berlin and Amsterdam (on his 40th birthday), leaving Antarctica, Oceania and South America to complete. He hopes to finish the challenge in early 2010. With a best half-marathon time of 1:53 and full marathon of 4:29, Jon says he won't be troubling the front runners at the North Pole but expects to retain his 2008 Sambuca title. Jon is a Tax Partner with Haslers, a firm of accountants in Essex. He suffered from Meningitis as a child.